Into the Future of Design

The Financial Times looks at the winners of Design Miami/Basel’s Designers of the Future award:

This year the awards went to people again – Nacho Carbonell, Peter Marigold, Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny, Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer – but event organisers made them work for it, asking each to take two materials – plaster and mirror – and create a 30 sq metre “environment” that would “stimulate discourse, reflection and community”.

“We stipulated an environment rather than an art or design installation so the designers would create a space that translates as a moment of reflection about themselves, their work and also makes a point – politically, economically, geographically – about this particular moment in time,” says Ambra Medda, director and co-founder of Design Miami/Basel.

Why those particular materials? “Plaster is cheap, malleable and beautiful but generally under-appreciated. Mirror can, as any reflective surface, be applied with the reflections having further associations,” she says. “Both are relatively flexible and basic.”

The resulting spaces, on display in Basel from June 9, are anything but.